A technically purer definition of Ann Romney

[customerserviceguy]

5. They don't call her his secret weapon for nothing

She can work a crowd much better than he can, she's way more convincing that she's for real than he could ever hope to be. Now, she's like a placeholder running mate for him to have until she steps out of the way at the convention.

Mormon women of old (and the still polygamous offshoot sects) tolerated polygamy for one reason, their religion teaches that the higher a man gets up in their version of heaven, the higher they get, too. For the polygamous, that means the greater number of children a man sires, the higher up he goes. So that "sister wife" is not your competition, she's another dog pulling the sled.

In the century since the main LDS church officially repudiated polygamy, Mormon women have adapted that self-sacrifice to doing whatever it took to make sure their man succeeded at his job, especially if it was in business. Ann Romney knows that if she can use her talents to successfully fake victimhood, it propels her husband along his chosen path to the Presidency, and she gets to be the first Mormon First Lady if that happens.

Same frontier ideal, just a different expression of it.